Personal-care articles are well known for their ability to absorb bodily exudates, for instance menses. Typically, personal-care articles, such as feminine sanitary napkins, include a fluid-permeable topsheet that faces the body of a user, a fluid-impermeable backsheet, and an absorbent core interposed between the topsheet and backsheet. The absorbent core is used to absorb and store the bodily exudates until the personal-care article has been removed.
Absorbent cores are designed not only to absorb an ever greater amount of bodily exudates, but also to store the bodily exudates more securely. The more bodily exudates absorbed by and stored in the personal-care article, the greater the chance that some of the absorbed bodily exudates will exit from the personal-care article (rewet). Various causes can lead to rewet, such as material overload or physical stresses applied to the personal-care article. Whatever the cause, leakage of bodily exudates from a personal-care article is highly undesirable to a user.
The problem of increasing the amount of bodily exudate absorbed and stored by a personal-care article while reducing the occurrence of rewet has not been sufficiently solved by the current personal-care articles. Efforts to increase absorption and prevent rewet have focused on modifying the absorbent core of a personal-care article. Such modifications have involved increasing the amount of absorbent material in the absorbent core or adding materials, such as absorbent gelling materials to the absorbent core. The disadvantage of adding more material to the absorbent layer is that the additional material increases the absorbent core's size and thickness. This adds greater weight to the personal-care article making it more difficult to wear.
It would be desirable to have a personal-care article that absorbs and stores greater amounts of bodily exudate than current personal-care articles. Additionally, it would be desirable to have a personal-care article that could reduce the occurrence of rewet.